Tuesday, February 01, 2011

It's two days to go until the publication of my second grown-up novel You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, so I just wanted to give you a heads up that there are two different covers. Yes, two! Because I am special like that.

This is the petals cover, which will be sold in supermarkets.

And this is the lips cover, which will be sold everywhere else. I would love to know which cover you prefer. And of course, I'm dying to know what you think of the book as the story and my heroine, Neve, are very close to my heart as you'll know if you read my recent piece for Stella magazine. I've also got a piece in the March issue of Red magazine and I'll be in the News Of The World's Fabulous magazine this Sunday (February 6th.)

In fact, there is so much news but the biggest piece of gossip is that this blog will soon be amalgamated into my brand spanking new website. Not a microsite but a proper website, which will go live in mere days. For now, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be taking part in a live webchat on 24th February, which you can register for here.

So, to recap the important thing, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is out on February 3rd, which is also the closing date for my Chrismukkah competition.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Happy New Year, readers! Or I should say Bonne Annee, mes amis, as I've just come back from Paris where I consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine and did some book research. But mostly, I just consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine.

Because I was elbow deep in finishing a draft of my third grown-up book and then disappearing off to Paris, I wasn't able to post details of my Annual Chrismukkah Contest. But better very late than never.

Regular readers will know that I expect a high degree of participation in my contests and this year is no exception. My new adult book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is out on February 3rd (available to pre-order NOW from Amazon and Waterstones) so I thought to myself why not kill two birds with one stone. Give something back to my readers, like the nice author I am, and combine it with a little publicity for my new book? Sounds like a plan!

So, in the comments leave me a question, WITH YOUR NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS AND AGE, and I will post and answer the best questions on this blog to coincide with the release of the book. The best questions will receive a signed copy of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, or a signed copy of one of my teen books if you're under 16. I'm not going to limit the number of prizes, but everyone who gets a question answered will receive a little something something from me.

* Try to make your questions original (if they're about You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, even better!) and not just 'Why won't you write a sequel to DOAC/Guitar Girl/Unsticky etc. Ask me anything, as long as it's not age or earnings-related!

* I won't publish your comments so rest assured your email addresses will not be posted on the interpipe for all to see.

* Bear in mind, that You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is an adult book with full-on dirty bits so in good conscience, I can't send out copies to under-16-year-olds, though I guess that's really between you and your parents! But still...

* Closing date for entries is February 3rd.

So there, you have it. If I've left out any important details, drop me a comment and I'll amend this post accordingly.

And because it is, or well, it was Christmas, a little gift for you all, or well, for those of you on Spotify. This is my Songs IPodded in 2010, though not a comprehensive list as I mostly listened to Northern Soul and old punk girl groups but they were book playlists and I'll post them in due course. Here's the link.

Live on

Sarra x

PS: Also, every day until publication, I am tweeting an excerpt from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me on my Twitter, so follow me there, if you don't already. Use the hashtag #ydhtsylm to find the ones you've missed.

This is the official blog of Sarra Manning, writer of Guitar Girl, Pretty Things, Let's Get Lost. the Fashionistas series, Nobody's Girl and the Diary Of A Crush trilogy. Also, Unsticky, Sarra's first novel for grown-up girls.
This blog will have regular postings from Sarra, answers to your questions, sneak previews of her forthcoming projects, competitions and a lot of ranting and raving about her current obsessions from Glee to obscure female Swedish singers and everything in between.

Le temps sont durs pour le rêveurs...

I write tawdry teen fiction and articles about fashion, celebrity and zeitgeisty trends. I wear Old Navy, Dorothy Perkins and Marc Jacobs. I was born 50 years too late and 50 years too soon. I have a rich, inner life. I live in London and on my wits. And I'm softer than my face would suggest...
But there are some things you need to know about me:
1. There will never be any more books in the Diary Of A Crush trilogy. READ THE DIARY OF A CRUSH LABELS BELOW TO FIND OUT WHY!
2. I can't reply to your messages if you don't have an active blogspot so I can leave comments.
3. My blog has all my latest news, including book releases. Also there are writing tips ALSO LABELLED BELOW!
4. If you're doing a book report, then Google is your friend. Just search my name. On the first page of your search, you will find pretty much everything you need.
Hope I don't sound too cranky, but as well as the book-writing, I'm a jobbing journalist and I hate to have a backlog of unanswered emails.